Virtual Victorians: Networks, Connections, Technologies

The proposed multi-disciplinary collection seeks to illuminate connections
between Victorian and twenty-first century technologies, as well as ask how
we might consider “virtuality” in relation to Victoriana. It will explore
the networks and connections facilitated by technology by combining
close-reading, broad theoretical questions, project descriptions, and
pedagogical methods.

I invite proposals for original essays on the Victorian art, literature, and
history that answer such questions as: How does the “digital revolution”
replicate technological developments in the Victorian era? What Victorian
innovations most resemble twenty-first century networks and connections? How
can we best represent Victorian literature electronically? What new reading
practices are facilitated by current (and emerging) digital technologies?
How does the virtual world change the way we teach Victorian art, history,
and literature?

Consider John. A Walsh’s, “Multimedia and Multitasking: A Survey of Digital
Resources for Nineteenth-Century Literary Studies”:

“The industrial revolution of the nineteenth century is the closest analog to
the rapid technological and social change of the digital age. And many
features of the nineteenth century — increased literacy rates, the
beginnings of mass media, the decreasing costs of publishing — led to
ever-increasing volumes of information and the need for ever more
sophisticated and flexible technologies for representing and managing that
information. Chronologically, technologically, and figuratively, the
nineteenth century and the industrial revolution are in large part the
parents of the digital age.”

Suggested topics may include:

– Victorian technologies

– visualization and remediation

– steampunk

– theoretical questions on how to best represent Victoriana electronically